10.22.2015

EVENT ALERT SPECIAL!!! LEGACY: A Story of Boys that Moved Men - Premieres October 25 at the African American Museum

BY Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

A brilliant, creative, talented and culturally aware young Black writer conceived of this wonderful production and has put together a play using Philadelphia's local school children as talent, entitled LEGACY.

It centers on the "what if" idea - what if Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Fredrick Douglass, and our other time honored Black heroes came back as youth and spoke with the youth of today. What would happen?

"According to Marcus Garvey, one of the activists who inspired the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin or culture is like a tree without roots.”

Garvey is one of four historic black leaders that will be brought to life in “Legacy,” the latest production from Kaliek Hayes and Stephen Gardner’s HYPERLINK "http://www.childhoodslostentgroup.com/" Childhoods Lost Entertainment Group. Garvey, along with Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. will visit Corey, a present day teenager, in a dream.

“Corey, like many young people today, has no real knowledge of his cultural history,” says “Legacy” playwright Karen Smith, who co-directs the play with Gardner. “He also doesn’t respect what certain individuals did to ensure his freedom. The historic leaders in ‘Legacy’ reaffirm what they worked for yesterday while expressing their feelings about today’s struggles. This production shares a fresh look into our past with our future leaders.”

“Legacy” is Childhoods Lost Entertainment Group’s seventh production in two years. According to Hayes, the company seeks to saturate the entertainment, artistic, and cultural markets with products of intervention, education, and empowerment to uplift urban communities.

“ Using the stage as our main platform, we provide an outlet and a voice for youth who often are left unheard in our society, while seeking to forge a solutions-based dialogue concerning the revitalization of urban communities’ consciousness,” he says. “With Legacy, we felt young people would benefit from understanding what some of our greatest leaders accomplished for our people”.

“Legacy” will be presented on Sunday, October 25, at 2pm and 5pm at Philadelphia’s historic African American Museum, 701 Arch St. For ticket information call Kaliek Hayes (484)300-5468 or HYPERLINK "http://childhoodslostentgroup.com" childhoodslostentgroup.com

It is brilliantly conceived and written, and even more brilliantly portrayed by youth who are not only acting, but learning about the history of these wonderful Black leadership Icons, and seeing what their own roles as leaders in the making are as well.

I had actually tried to reach out to two of Malcolm's daughters - Malaak and Ilyasah Shabazz - to come and view this brilliant production. It pays such great homage to their dad, I know they'd want to be there in person to witness it. Particularly since Ilyasah penned the wonderful book about her dad's childhood, entitled "Young Malcolm." If you are in communication with them, forward this information to them - I think they'd love it (the invite of course is open to all of Brother Malcolm's daughters - I just happen to know these two wonderful ladies).